Fr. David Meconi, S.J. will kick off the new academic year's "Searching the Sacred" series at Hope College, sponsored by the department of religion, with the address "The Vocation of Godliness: Deification in the Christian Tradition" on Monday, Sept. 15, at 3:30 p.m. in Semelink Hall at Western Theological Seminary.

Fr. David Meconi, S.J. will kick off the new academic year's "Searching the Sacred" series at Hope College, sponsored by the department of religion, with the address "The Vocation of Godliness: Deification in the Christian Tradition" on Monday, Sept. 15, at 3:30 p.m. in Semelink Hall at Western Theological Seminary.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Meconi is a native of Paw Paw, where his family runs the St. Julien winery they founded in 1921. He is a 1987 graduate of Hope College, where he majored in religion and business administration.

After graduation he worked for S&P 500 futures trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, but his heart was drawn to ministry and the study of theology. He quit the Merc and went first to Yale University Divinity School, and then Notre Dame, Marquette, and Rome to study theology. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1992. After completing his first studies there he taught Latin and Greek at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then went on to study and teach at the Jesuitenkolleg in Innsbruck, Austria.

Meconi was ordained to the priesthood in the order of the Society of Jesus on Saturday, June 14. He leaves on Tuesday, Sept. 23, for Oxford University where he will pursue doctoral studies.

Refreshments will be served. Western Theological Seminary is located on 13th Street between College and Columbia avenues.